Digest of the Journals
Journal: BMJ (1849)

M. BEmAxD, of Villefranche, who has made some interesting researches on the digestive function, has been led to conclude, that the especial function of the pancreatic juice is to modify or digest the fatty matters contained in the food, and to facilitate their absorption by the chyliferous vessels.He distinguishes two kinds of pancreatic juice: 1, Normal; 2, Morbid; the latter being secreted in grcat abundance under inflammatory action.The former is a colourless, limpid, viscous, alkaline fluid, possessing no charac- teristic odour.Its taste is somewhat saline; and its tactile impression on the tongue is that of a viscous liquid.Like albumen, it is coagulable by heat, nitric, sulphuric, and hydrochloric acids, by metallic salts, wood-spirit, and alcohol.It differs, however, from albumen in this respect; that the precipitate produced alcohol, when dried, can be readily dissolved in water, and possessesthe same properties as before its precipitation; which is not the case with albumen.The morbid pancreatic juice is a watery fluid, having no viscocity, generally colourless, but sometimes opalescent, sometimes reddish.Its taste is saline and nauseous; its reaction is alkaline; and it is not coagulable by heat or acids.The transmutation from one to the other is gradual, and is shown by a progressive diminution of the coagulable material.On exposure to a temperature of 400 or 450 cent., the pancreatic juice, in a few hours, exhales a nauseous odour, presents a cloudy deposit, and a pecu- liar aspect,arising from crystals of margarine, and it loses its property of coagulating by heat.When two parts of fresh healthy pancreatic juice are mixed with one part ofolive oil, fresh butter, mutton or pork suet, and exposed in a salt water- bottle to a temperature of 350 or 380 cent., there is soon formed a whitish, creamy emulsion, which is not precipitated at the end of fifteen or eighteen hours.It is evident that some chemical action is exerted in the fat: for at first, the mixture has an alkaline reaction, but becomes acid in five or six hours, evidently from increase of glycerine and fatty acid.When butter is used, butyric acid can be detected by its odour, at some distance from the vessel.M. Bernard states, that no other animal fluid possesses this property: and it is not possessed by the pancreatic fluid in its morbid state.The func- tion of the pancreatic fluid then seems to be, to render the fatty matters absorbable, by the formation of a white, homogeneous liquid, which is ab-L sorbed by the lacteals.The proof of this is, that the fat, which is unchanged in the stomach, becomes, below the orifice of the pancreatic duct, of a totally different character.If the pancreatic duct of a dog be tied, the fat remains unaltered in the small intestine, and the lacteals only contain a limpid chyle, without any admixture of fat.In rabbits, where the pancreatic canal opens t t a considerable distance below the biliary duct, the fat contained in the food remains unaltered till it arrives at the orifice of the pancreatic duct, and the lacteals contain fatty matter above this point.The experiments of Sir B. BRODIE were made on cats, in which the pancreatic and biliary ducts open by a common canal, so that he included both in the ligatures which he applied.Hie was led conclude, that the bile acted on the fatty matters; bUt M. MAGENDIE, in tying the ducts cholecu.s of dogs, which is distinct from the pancreatic duct, not obtain the same result.The apparent contradiction in these experiments is considered by M. Bernard as confirma-